When Queen Mary Tudor came to the English throne in
1553, everyone expected she would restore the Roman Church to a nation which
had become Protestant. Fearing brutality, some clergymen fled. One who stayed in
England was John Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester. Assured that he could speak
freely, he debated Roman apologists in a convocation.

Philpot was a man of great
learning, with knowledge not only of the Bible but of its languages, especially
Hebrew. To persuade him to recant his Protestant beliefs would have been a
signal victory. However, contemporaries say Philpot more than held his own in
the debates.

Almost at once, his words were
turned against him. He was arrested as a heretic and bullied by Story, Bonner
and other agents of the queen. Bishop Gardiner, one of Mary's leading
persecutors, had reason to resent Protestants. Gardiner had been bishop of
Winchester until deposed by the Protestant king, Edward VI.

Philpot was sometimes held in
Bishop Bonner's coal house and sometimes in a tower. One day he might be loaded
with chains, the next placed in the stocks. His opponents vowed openly to bring
him to the stake, but at the same time sought to persuade him to recant his
heresies. John Philpot held fast to his convictions through fourteen
examinations.

Eighteen months passed in this
imprisonment. There was no sign his resolve would weaken. Philpot managed to
preserve secret notes about his hearings. Much of this material was later
printed by John Foxe in his Actes and Monuments (better known as Foxe's Book
of Martyrs).

On December 16th, Bishop Bonner
passed the death sentence on his victim. Philpot was taken to Newgate and
loaded with so many chains by the prison keeper that he had to send a servant
to ask the sheriff to relieve him. The sheriff ordered the extra chains
removed. On the 17th, while he ate supper, Philpot was told he must die the
next day. To this he replied joyfully, "I am ready: God grant me strength
and a joyful resurrection."

Thanking God that he was counted
worthy to suffer for truth, he went into his room. Did his mind run back to his
participated in the examination and burning of the deluded Joan of Kent?

We do not know. However, on this day, December 18, 1555, he met the sheriff's men joyfully
at eight and proceeded to the stake in Smithfield. The path was muddy and the
sheriff's men offered to carry him. He refused, saying, "I am content to
go to my journey's end on foot."

He knelt when he came to the
place of execution and kissed the stake. Then he recited psalms 106, 107 and
108, was chained to the stake, and died in the flame that mounted around his
body.

Lutheran

Presbyterian

About Me

Retired. Reformed and Presbyterian by background, but dedicated to the Anglican Prayerbook with degrees from Presbyterian and Episcopal seminaries. Informed by both traditions. Not giving up the 1662 BCP for the Presbyterians and not giving up the Westminster Standards for the Anglicans.